Star charting and the perils of being a sff writer

[Zoe Mackay]

Does Photoshop allow free hand drawing? Or can I make a picture there? The charts are simple - it"s just getting them onto a doc I'm not sure about. But I don't have a photo of them.

Yes, it does. Yes, you can. Or you can use a vector graphics type thing (Inkscape is a free one).

Is this the kind of thing you're looking at producing?

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

Sorry, back to this. None of these do what I'm looking for. What I want is to put a chart of my imaginary star system into the front of my book. It doesn't have to be hugely detailed. Are there any art apps or word features that would allow me to draw into a word document?

I'm getting the impression from earlier posts that everyone is looking for free s/w. I'm looking at this: http://www.starrynight.com/Enthusiast7/index.html# . Not cheap, but it allows you to fly to other systems and see the heavens from that vantage point. It also has details on all currently known exoplanets, information on distances, star types, luminosities, etc. Since my novel involves interstellar flight and exploration, I'm trying to nerve myself up to make the purchase.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Does Photoshop allow free hand drawing

All photoediting does. Photoshop is probably the most expensive package. For mortals there are excellent free to cheap things that do what you want too.

Copy & paste puts nearly any image into a Word Doc. And messes up size. I keep my images separately also as PNG or JPG and the "word doc" is just a preview. Though I HAVE figured out how to get Word -> HTML with correct size images -> eBook making software. Go direct and image is wrong size and position.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Starry night

Not cheap, but it allows you to fly to other systems and see the heavens from that vantage point. It also has details on all currently known exoplanets,

It's madly overpriced for what it does.

 

[hopewrites]

paint allows for free hand... and as I remember has an oval (circle) brush
I made one but can't figure out how to upload it, not very good but I only spent two min on it.

edit: oh there we go

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Yes, Robert, Hope those are what I want to do. Best free package? Or, preferably, an app? That a technical idiot could use.
You're all fab!

 

[goldhawk]

Free drawing software:
Raster based:

• MyPaint: http://mypaint.intilinux.com/
• GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/
• Krita: http://krita.org/
• Pinta: http://pinta-project.com/

Vector based:

• Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/

3D:

• Blender: http://www.blender.org/

 

[jastius]

You can put a free draw and paint app on your phone or tablet and paste the image file into a word document..
This is one I did in two minutes using a free android app called draw and paint..

If the first is a little boring.. You can run the image through a couple of effects editors..

 

[jastius]

Another one for springs..

Springs if you could give me a rough idea of what you need.. I can give it another shot..